priority boost Option

Use the priority boost option to specify whether Microsoft SQL Server should run at a higher Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008, or Windows 2008 R2 scheduling priority than other processes on the same computer. If you set this option to 1, SQL Server runs at a priority base of 13 in the Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008, or Windows 2008 R2 scheduler. The default is 0, which is a priority base of 7.

Important

This feature will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Do not use this feature in new development work, and modify applications that currently use this feature as soon as possible.

Raising the priority too high may drain resources from essential operating system and network functions, resulting in problems shutting down SQL Server or using other operating system tasks on the server.

The priority boost option is an advanced option. If you are using the sp_configure system stored procedure to change the setting, you can change priority boost only when show advanced options is set to 1. The setting takes effect after the server is restarted.